Thursday, 20 July 2017

Tunes by my hometown bands worth your attention and money

Riga - the city of contrasts. Where old meets new, ugly meets beautiful and West meets East. Very seldom I mention my own countrymen and their music simply because most of it is utter garbage and I'm actually a bit ashamed when someone labels Saturn's Husk "metal" and as a result puts us into the same bucket with other edge-lord crap. Don't get me wrong I do appreciate what the veteran bands of Latvian metal scene did back in the day, it is just that I don't care for the most of the new stuff that keeps getting released here and just doesn't fall into the category of "quality music" by my book. Stop pretending that you like something only because the trendy kid next door seems to like it or some oldfag tells you that you should appreciate this or that band because of what they did at the turn of the century. If they sound like shit live and on record I don't care how many fans they have and under which worldwide label they're signed. Bottom line is, if they suck, they suck. Rise above, dig what you dig, support the local acts you care about, educate the young and spread the word!

Kristofera Sapnis

An avant-garde adventure from a defunct band featuring Saturn's Husk drummer. Kristofera Sapnis is a band that almost nobody knows of. Here is the link to the whole experience - http://www.kristoferasapnis.lv/ENG/index.html (click on the bunny first and then click on the gramophone to hear the music)

NEKAD - Klusumā

Crusty punk hardcore from our hometown. Artwork by the one and only, the provocative Kristiāns Brekte.

The Pink Elephant

<a href="http://pinkselefants.bandcamp.com/album/mellowing">Mellowing by The Pink Elephant</a>

Soundarcade - Moving the Great Hadron

Soundarcade is probably one of the best things that happened in the scene and is one of the very few experimental bands that keep expanding their sound and keep pushing their songwriting skills with each release. The way they layer the sound is insane.

Tesa - G H O S T

Besides being genuinely nice guys, Tesa are a post/sludge powerhouse from Riga. Their album G H O S T is probably the best offering to the genre that comes from the Baltics since the fall of the Soviet union. I will add that one of their accomplishments was touring Europe by supporting the great band Neurosis last summer. Enough said!

I would also like to mention Ģirts Laumanis aka "Lomiks", the founder of Hodila Records as he is probably one of the very few people that keep quality music and underground culture alive in our country.